Perranzabuloe, the Lost Church Found

he has engaged at all in this work; and so ardently does he desire this happy consummation, that he might well envy the affectionate zeal, the superhuman love and devotion of the warmhearted apostle, that led him to declare on behalf of his erring countrymen-"I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness, and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.*

With the errors of Romanism, therefore, the writer has alone endeavored to combat, and even in combating them, he has had no desire himself, nor would he on any account persuade others, to measure the Protestant religion by any uncandid opposition to the Roman Catholic; and in the like spirit of fairness towards that Church, he disclaims for himself the supposition that he would account every thing popery that is found in her. No; he thankfully acknowledges in her whatever she has retained of primitive truth and piety, and readily admits, that with all her dead forms, and cold and corrupt doctrines, there is yet to be found some of the devotional spirit of early piety circulating in her veins; she yet retains, though hidden from the people in an unknown tongue, many of

Rom. xi. 1-13.

those truly scriptural prayers, which in the service of the Church of England are, in their translated form, found to be so exquisitely adapted to the purposes of devotion. These prayers, however, are not to be mistaken for the compositions of Popery, but are the revered and sacred remnants of pure antiquity, most of them having been extant in the Western Church above 1000 years before the name of Popery, at least long before the present mass-book had a being.* Had the Roman Church adhered in every thing to the form and practice of antiquity, there would have been no need of the Reformation, and nothing would have been heard of those violent disputes which have so rent the Church of Christ, in consequence of her departure from the primitive faith and practice. But the Reformers had no alternative; the Roman Church would not throw off her corruptions-they were compelled, therefore, to undertake the reformation for themselves. "Those worthy husbandmen,' ," "in plucking up those pernicious weeds out of the Lord's field, and severing the chaff from his grain, cannot be rightly said, in doing this, either to have brought in another field, or to have changed the ancient grain. The field is the same, but weeded now, unweeded then; the grain is the same, but winnowed now, unwinnowed then."+

* Veneer's Introduction to his Exposition of the Book of Common Prayer.

+ Archbishop Usher's Sermon on the University of the Church of Christ, published A. D. 1624.

This is the plain state of the case, and in its further development, in the following pages, it will be observed with what caution the restorers of our Church either rejected what was contrary to Scripture and the practice of antiquity, or else retained "with reverence, whatever did not endamage the Church of God, nor offend the minds of sober men."

The author has only further to observe, that with reference to the introductory chapter, having been greatly interested in the recent discovery and restoration of the very ancient Church of Perranzabuloe-associated as it is with the early history of a country, whose simple-minded inhabitants were the last to surrender, as they were the first to assert, the independence of their church-he considers it to be so happily illustrative of the subject before him, that he hopes no apology is necessary for giving it a conspicuous place in this work: and without wishing to press the analogy too closely, he cannot doubt but that in the main features there will be discovered such a resemblance as will help materially to answer the old objection drawn from the Church's temporary obscurity and concealment.

The writer throughout has consulted the best authorities, and has only presumed in two cases to give any latitude to invention-in the parting address of St. Piran, alluded to by several historians, he has ventured to imagine what might

have been the words of the dying saint-and in the silence of history respecting the identical Cornish shrine that the pious Alfred visited in his sickness, he has not hesitated to assign the honour to a tomb so celebrated as was that at Perranzabuloe.*

The author cannot but believe that the favorable notice which the public have taken of the former editions of this little volume, is indicative of something better than the mere indulgence of an useless curiosity respecting an interesting relic of antiquity-he feels assured that it is the homage paid to TRUTH-the assent of unprejudiced minds, not to any "strange doctrines," but to a plain narration of facts-establishing by an unbroken chain of historical evidence the points to be proved, and beating down the vain and unfounded pretensions of the Church of Rome. He commits therefore, with increased confidence, this new edition of his work to the same indulgent public-he commends it again to the blessing of HIM who has promised to be with his Church even unto the end of the world!

* Some further notices respecting the Church of Perranzabuloe, and its ancient place of sepulture, are added in the Appendix.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER 1.

PAGE

Approach to Perran's Bay.-Desolate aspect of the surround-

ing country.-Sandhills of Perranzabuloe.—Traditionary no-

tice of its ancient Church.-State of Cornwall on the first

introduction of Christianity.-Druids. Their religion and

remains. Causes of the slow progress of Christianity at

first.-First propagated in the third century.—Corantinus,

the first Cornish apostle.-Piranus, his history.-Lands in

Cornwall. A great benefactor to the miners.-His death.